Found this on RacerX thought it was interesting! What do you guys think about Stewart and Fox parting ways?
Posted by Davey Coombs on Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Has there ever been a silly season like the one that has consumed the industry since the morning of the Las Vegas Supercross? That’s the day Racer X Online broke the news that soon-to-be-crowned AMA Supercross #1
Chad Reed was leaving L&M Yamaha and that
James Stewart was set to take his place. Of course it caused some serious consternation in the pits, and we were delicately asked to pull it down for 24 hours so Reed could at least accept his #1 plate at the banquet, but by then it was already apparent that all hell was breaking loose.
photo: Simon Cudby
This year's silly season is one of the craziest in the history of motocross.
Since then, we’ve seen Reed sign with Rockstar/Makita Suzuki, while Stewart followed through with L&M, though no official announcement has been made about his new blue bike. Stewart also seems to have parted ways with 15-year gear sponsor Fox Racing and will now be wearing Answer gear. Fresh off his 24-0 moto sweep of the AMA Toyota Motocross Championships, Stewart is joining what’s essentially a SX-only team, even as Reed and fellow SX-only rider Kevin Windham have signaled that they like the changes being made to the outdoor series and … hey, is Windham staying with Honda?
Ryan Villopoto is moving up to the 450 class (that’s what it should be called in 2009) and Ben Townley,
Mike Alessi,
Ivan Tedesco and
Davi Millsaps will all be coming back healthy (and
Grant Langston may never come back at all). Josh Grant is moving up and over to Joe Gibbs Racing MX/Toyota Yamaha. Grand Prix stars Tommy Searle and the hopefully-healthy Christophe Pourcel are coming to America for the 250 class in 2009 just as Zach Osborne and possibly Tyler Bowers are headed to Europe. And if you’re keeping score on Mike Brown, he is with his third brand and third series since June!
That’s a busy silly season, and it’s still not over. And there were other changes to the business of the sport: Supercross was just sold to Feld Entertainment, while DMG now owns AMA Pro Racing and will allow MX Sports to reshape outdoor motocross. Youthstream has set up shop in America and is looking for a racetrack to plant its flag. Indianapolis Motor Speedway is finally holding another motorcycle race—it started with a motorcycle race in 1909!
Lance Armstrong is headed back to the Tour de France, Jeremy McGrath is headed to Australia, a black man is running for President of the United States and he’s up against a team that includes a woman; either way, history will be made.
The only way it could be bigger is if
Ricky Carmichael decided to come back to motocross on an RM125….
Maybe next year?
Also Ping said on DMXS radio that they were trying to get a supermoto race held in Mammoth next year.
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